Tuesday, November 20, 2007

How and Why? Antzzzzzzz



Have you ever got time to look at an ANT colony? It is amazing to see how those tiny insects work together for uphill tasks. But how do they actually know what is each once role? If you see an ant group, once they find sugar on floor, they start carrying it back to their colony. But who decides which route is best? Who decides where the first ant will hand over (or head over) the sugar cube to the next one? Does every ant meets the queen Ant and they get the message like in a meeting or they communicate when they do that that teeny tiny thing with their antenna?
Or do they have telepathy? I had seen Ants fighting each other, I am not sure if they where of the same group or rival group but they fight. Do they have communal riots as we have? Do they fight for mates and food? If so how do they settle? Being the most intelligent creature in the earth (that’s what humans pertain to be) we struggle with each of this. But I think ants are better in their social aspects

From my limited knowledge,
Ants always communicate using some chemical called pheromones.
The queen Ant is a biggest and its job is to eat and lay eggs and make sure that next generation gets on.
Ants have a good communication structure where each knows what to do.
Ants fights when they are confronted with ants of other colony.
The one who losses the fight will be recruited to the colony for work.
All the ants don’t fight and all of them don’t lay eggs.
At the time of any alarm, ants secrete some kind of chemical which alerts the surrounding ants.
Ants have a memory to find out the trial which leads to food and get back on the same track next time. They also look for the probability of finding food in the same location.
Ants are good at engineering aspects also as the nest build by ant colonies using leaves are strong when considering the materials with which they build them.
Ant communication is more than where is food, A to B direction but how much left, how much more time required etc
Ants have emotion and they express it using gestures or by friction of one organ against other (Antenna)
An ant colony is made up of one or two queens, which spend their lives laying eggs, and thousands of worker ants which feed the ant queen and tend the young ant larvae.
The male ants only serve one purpose, to mate with future queen ants and do not live very long.
SLAVE MAKER ants raid and chase off or kill guards of other species. They then carry off the larvae and pupae. In some species the slaves do all the work. Their captors would starve to death without their slaves. One species depends on its slaves
Ants modify their environment. They regulate the temperature and humidity within their nests. They control airflow through their nests. They build mounds. They clear pathways.
Ants are vicious, merciless survival machines. They breed special castes of large, powerful soldiers. Along with soldiers, worker will fight for the survival of the colony, not giving a though for personal safety or survival. Some ants even use chemical propaganda in warfare. When ants fight, there is no surrender, no mercy, and no peace. They kill all the enemies and eat their babies. If it is necessary to the survival of the colony, ants will eat their own babies. Some ants steal the eggs and larvae of other species and raise them as slaves.

Ants might be another tiny organization but they have lived long enough in our planet to survive. Do we know how to survive?

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